Page 4 - Minor Tests and Conclusion
Power supplies are interesting products -- because often, reviews of products in this category are conducted and tested in methods that make it difficult to distinguish one power supply from another. Many aspects have to be taken into consideration -- of which certain criteria consists of efficiency, noise, power ripples, and of course the ability to pull out the rated specifications. Because many cannot afford such equipment to obtain results regarding those aspects, articles covering power supplies often come out with less than adequate and acceptable information. As this is a product report -- not a review -- what we are doing is a close examination of the power supply, and the internal hardware and build. But what we can do for you is do some minor testing with the results we can present to you with, and let other review sites with professional equipment show you the actual test results. We're not going to try to BS you by installing the power supply into the latest gaming rig and try to take readings from that, as this is not even remotely the correct way to test power supply units. We understand that many websites do that as a means of load testing, but the results, even if you use an oscilloscope and multimeter at each output location, it is not sufficient, nor does it accurately reflect the performance of the power supply.
Using our power supply tester which exerts minimal load on the power supply, the initial consumption was 10W as measured by our wall meter unit -- indicating that the basic load-free power consumption of the power supply is very good. It is almost identical to the Seasonic Platinum 1000W, and a bit lower than the Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid 1050W. Independent reviews from websites with professional load testing equipment showed the Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W delivered excellent efficiency across the board -- right up to its rated wattage. This includes its 80 Plus Platinum certification. However, it seems to us that its ripple and voltage regulation is average at best according to our affiliates.
Voltages with minimal load are generally accurate, which is a basic requirement of power supplies out of the box. In this situation all are within 3.3%. The PG (Power Good) delay seems to be well within its rated range and general power supply standard of 290ms.
Active power correction is important to correct AC load line loss. In AC power, there are three components to it; as there is a phase difference between current and voltage. This makes up the power triangle, which consists of the following: Average usable power (P, measured in watts), reactive power (Q, denoted as VA-R), and total power (S, written as VA). While they all have the same physical units, it is not the same thing as aforementioned. What we want is the average usable power -- with as little wasted reactive power as possible. The total power provided over the AC line is the magnitude of the two combined (sqrt(P^2+Q^2)). Power factor can then be easily calculated by P/S. The ideal value is 1.00, and this is where active PFC comes in. A nominal load of 200W (16%) on the Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W had the power factor at 0.98. This figure is pretty impressive, considering active PFC usually does not work very well with such a small load. As the load increases, the PF should approach 0.99.
The Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W is an extremely quiet power supply; especially for a high power kilowatt-spec unit. Under regular to medium loads (Less than 500W), the Toughpower XT is inaudible, because the fan is shut off completely. Even when it is on, the Thermaltake TT-1425B is a consistently smooth running fan that is reasonably quiet at lower RPMs, and good placement of internal components contributes to reduced turbulence noise. While this is very subjective, I am quite a picky person on noise, and the loudest component in my entire system is my Western Digital Caviar Blue hard disk. On a scale from 0-10 where 0 is silent and 10 is the loudest, I would rate the Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W to be at 0.0/10 acoustically under nominal loads (Modern computers don't use anything close to 500W idling, or heck, even under regular loads). The fan is pretty quiet up to approximately 50% of its maximum speed in silent mode, but it will become exponentially more audible after that magic mark in cooling mode. Overall, the Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W is an awesome power supply for silent PC enthusiasts, and anyone looking for both power and silence will enjoy what this power supply is capable of delivering.
Thermaltake provided this product to APH Networks to facilitate this report.
The Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W is a power supply that looks like it was designed in Russia, but actually made in China, sold by a Taiwanese company, priced like a European product, shipped to America, and installed in my computer here in Canada. Either way, its amazing specifications -- high power, high efficiency, and no noise up to 500W -- is simply created to impress. From our affiliates with professional load testing equipment, ripple and voltage regulation has a bit of room for improvement, but other than that, everything else seems to check out.
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Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Outside
3. Physical Look - Inside
4. Minor Tests and Conclusion
